There an an offical patch which made it better and less prone to crashing. But playing around with it, you can get it to handle very well. I race single seaters so know how a car should feel. I dont think its like its on rails. There are various things you can do to tweek the physics etc. F1 2011 seems to be very arcade like and would say its not realistic at all.

I never really enjoyed gp4 having played gp3 extensively beforehand. I always felt Gp3 handled better and had huge amounts of tracks and car sets (obviously shite quality compared to what was possible in gp4 but I knew no better at the time). As mentioned above it crashes a lot and it can suck the life out of the CPU. I've found add tracks in particular to be a disaster in terms of ctd's. The major improvements over gp3 were on the graphics side, but even some of bellini's tracks for gp3 2000 are very nice looking indeed (cars still look crap though). There were no major gameplay advancements over gp3.

Now if we got one of the game developers here he would probably point to a million different things 'under the hood' were the game improved over its predecessors, but sadly they did not rub off on me.

I really enjoyed GP4. But I was a big fan of the series since GP2 days.

Personally, GP2 was the ultimate. Way ahead of it's time. And I still think it has a much smarter AI system then games coming out today. GP3 was an improvement, but I thought GP3 2000 was a let down. Ditched it pretty quickly but GP4 came along and I was happy again.

I never got the impression the game or series was disliked. It seemed to be hugely popular in the 90s, early 00s. But then rFactor came along with all it's mods and it slowly took over.

But they are all rubbish now. A3 summed it up, I couldnt recommend iRacing highly enough.

And I still think it has a much smarter AI system then games coming out today.

Absolutely, they slipstream and overtake properly, they defend their position, they acknowledge blue flags, have proper strategies, have mechanical failures just like the player, they make random mistakes from time to time. I've not played a game with ai anywhere near the level of the gp series.

Absolutely, they slipstream and overtake properly, they defend their position, they acknowledge blue flags, have proper strategies, have mechanical failures just like the player, they make random mistakes from time to time. I've not played a game with ai anywhere near the level of the gp series.

Play the 79 F1 mod for Ai-factor. The AI is excellent there. I once had a grand prix long battle with the virtual Alan Jones which had me sweating in my seat.

And I don't know how they did it, but if you race the historic season the results are pretty much what they were in the real world. Except when you beat the AI. This weekend I ruined Ligiers double in South-America...

Play the 79 F1 mod for Ai-factor. The AI is excellent there. I once had a grand prix long battle with the virtual Alan Jones which had me sweating in my seat.

And I don't know how they did it, but if you race the historic season the results are pretty much what they were in the real world. Except when you beat the AI. This weekend I ruined Ligiers double in South-America...

Rfactor ai has given me a lot of bad experiences

Some mods have decent ai in fairness but still i've found them never to be totally convincing.

Some mods have decent ai in fairness but still i've found them never to be totally convincing.

Very important in rFactor: the AI have to have the same setup as you or vice versa. A lot of simmers setup their car ultrastiff AND with very little downforce. The AI will crash into you at every corner because they a. brake later and better. b. accelerate out the corner much quicker.

My advice would be to put the AI in rFactor 0.05 aggressionmode and let them use (or you use) the same setup... plus you add a a little bit backwing for the braking zones and slightly shorter gears for yourself. My experience is that you get some great racing in some mods.

last time I tried to play GP4 finally with a wheel (with all the assists off) it was not so great, the FFB is very bad... it was great with the keyboard, but not so great with a wheel compared to some newer games,

hi. I've been driving all the way from Gp1 to Gp4, and having fun doing it. In the last months I drove Gp 4 and F1 Mania, mostly, and spme rFactor. I've no experience with iRacing. Then I got F1 2010...I like the game, and this post made me realize that it is the only f1 game I've been driving in the last months, no more Mania, no more gp4...F1 2010 is good fun and quite interisting driving, all in alll a better game experience, imho.

hi. I've been driving all the way from Gp1 to Gp4, and having fun doing it. In the last months I drove Gp 4 and F1 Mania, mostly, and spme rFactor. I've no experience with iRacing. Then I got F1 2010...I like the game, and this post made me realize that it is the only f1 game I've been driving in the last months, no more Mania, no more gp4...F1 2010 is good fun and quite interisting driving, all in alll a better game experience, imho.

roberto

The F1 2010 experience is fine... it just isn't editable by regular users, like GP4 was with the GP4 editor...and rFactor is now. F1 2010 is graphically fantastic but much too easy...

I was a hardcore GP4 gamer, mainly because of the AI & weather effects which IMO still hasn't been matched, although admittely I haven't played R factor or iracing (so scared on how complicated it will be to download etc). How someone please explain briefly how they compare to GP4?

F12010, is a nice switch on & play game, although it can be a bit too easy. However when I used to play GP4, I loved how intense some of the races became. For instance, you would be trying to ekk out 1/1000ths of a second lap after lap after lap (in a two hour race) & at the same time, keeping an eye on strategy & weather / tyre choices. I loved that.

In F12010, (I might be mistaken here) but I don't think you even have the option to see your laptimes during a race. So during a wet / dry race it becomes harder to assess which tyres you should be own, as you have to purely go by feel (when the cars feel a bit 'floaty' even in the dry). Also the AI & Strategical element doesn't compare to GP4.

I was a hardcore GP4 gamer, mainly because of the AI & weather effects which IMO still hasn't been matched, although admittely I haven't played R factor or iracing (so scared on how complicated it will be to download etc). How someone please explain briefly how they compare to GP4?

Iracing is not complicated to download.

Compared to iracing GP4 is arcade (I loved GP4, mind you). IRacing is an online sim, so you can't drive against AI, you can only race other human beings which is awesome once you get out of the rookie class.

I did not like R Factor (graphics too cartoonish) and I haven't touched F1 2010 since I became an "iRacer". With I racing you can see your laptimes, but even better, you can see every split time. It's an awesome sim.

The only thing I dislike is that you can't always race when you want to. You have to wait for the race of your choice, som series start one every 2 hours and if you don't have much time it can be annoying.

Compared to iracing GP4 is arcade (I loved GP4, mind you). IRacing is an online sim, so you can't drive against AI, you can only race other human beings which is awesome once you get out of the rookie class.

I did not like R Factor (graphics too cartoonish) and I haven't touched F1 2010 since I became an "iRacer". With I racing you can see your laptimes, but even better, you can see every split time. It's an awesome sim.

The only thing I dislike is that you can't always race when you want to. You have to wait for the race of your choice, som series start one every 2 hours and if you don't have much time it can be annoying.

Thanks for the info A3.

Iracing does actually sound pretty awesome, but TBH I don't have the internet speed to play games online (I barely have enough speed to watch utube videos) & i'm not sure if my PC could handle it. But I'm hoping to change this soon & when I do, I will def look into getting it. Thanks for your help.

I never got over the hump with the game when it came out.. it was a hog when launched and it wouldnt run properly on any hardware I had at the time, and later it never came back to the surface.

Sorry, that was mostly my fault.

The minimum spec they put on the side of the box was a joke. Needless to say, we all had pretty meaty machines in the studio. I was only a couple years in to games at that time (started in film) and the first track I did was Monaco, and I just built everything I could up to a certain standard using ref photos. And since it ran ok on my work machine, I did the same to the other tracks I did the scenery for (a lot of them).

We used to joke that we'd have to give away a free PC with every copy.

But, 'puter firms loved us cuz it made a lot of people upgrade. One of the first £1500 games

The minimum spec they put on the side of the box was a joke. Needless to say, we all had pretty meaty machines in the studio. I was only a couple years in to games at that time (started in film) and the first track I did was Monaco, and I just built everything I could up to a certain standard using ref photos. And since it ran ok on my work machine, I did the same to the other tracks I did the scenery for (a lot of them).

We used to joke that we'd have to give away a free PC with every copy.

But, 'puter firms loved us cuz it made a lot of people upgrade. One of the first £1500 games

I get loads of slowdown when I run Monaco even on todays machine especially when I go past the harbour and it struggles to draw all the boats and the people on the boats.

I've been playing GP4 for the first time with a wheel today using my Logitech Formula Force wheel that I've had for about 10 years. Before I ever figured out how to set the wheel up properly I bought F1 Challenge and never really looked back as my computer at the time couldn't handle GP4 very well at the time. Playing it now it looks great, but it's still a processor hog and it just doesn't feel right. If anyone has any tips on how to set up the wheel configuration so it feels a bit better I'm all ears because I've always liked the GP series. Currently I have dead zone for both throttle and steering set at 5 with 0 steering help.

I must admit, the force feedback in the wet is a revelation. The way the car squirms about is great!

Also clicking the icon and telling it to run in Win98 compatability helps.

Cheers for the link Minardifans, I've had a reasonable search but wasn't sure what the last supported patch was. I've tried all the usual tricks (been building gaming pc's since 1990), just can't get it to run or to support any controls other than kyboard. Hopefully this might help - now if I can only get GP2 to work under windows 7

I was playing GP4 for years but I dug out GP2 because there is a hardcore bunch of fanatics who love it and claim the series went downhill after that. I don't quite understand this, I skipped GP3 and thought GP4 was very good.

But anyway, GP2 runs like a dream on any PC, don't need a flash graphics card so runs great on my laptop. Plus there are a couple Dutch guys who still update the carsets every year! Pretty amazing considering the game is 17 years old now!

It's missing some features of GP4 that I got used to but I don't really miss them. GP2 really has everything I need.

When you play various tracks on this game, you realise that although it is bad that Tilke builds every track (I hate the lack of "natural" features, looks like they were drawn with a stencil), otherwise he gets too much flak - it is the cars that make the races boring and not the tracks themselves.

Cheers for the link Minardifans, I've had a reasonable search but wasn't sure what the last supported patch was. I've tried all the usual tricks (been building gaming pc's since 1990), just can't get it to run or to support any controls other than kyboard. Hopefully this might help - now if I can only get GP2 to work under windows 7

Hi sorry to bring up this old topic but out of curiosity did you ever manage to get it working? I bought the game on eBay two years ago and get thrown out to the desktop every single time I try and play it - it's so annoying as after nearly a decade of it coming out I've finally got a monster machine capable of running it!

Hi sorry to bring up this old topic but out of curiosity did you ever manage to get it working? I bought the game on eBay two years ago and get thrown out to the desktop every single time I try and play it - it's so annoying as after nearly a decade of it coming out I've finally got a monster machine capable of running it!

I installed it recently on Win7 64-bit. After a bit of faffing the game itself worked fine, I just couldn't get it to regonise my steering wheel and pedals as they make up three separate controller inputs.

After installing the latest official update, download the decrypted exe file (google it) and overwrite the official one (make a backup first). Then install GPxPatch

Hi sorry to bring up this old topic but out of curiosity did you ever manage to get it working? I bought the game on eBay two years ago and get thrown out to the desktop every single time I try and play it - it's so annoying as after nearly a decade of it coming out I've finally got a monster machine capable of running it!

You need to get GPx Patch and select a single core for GP4 to use (where it says CPU "Alle", change this to a number in the drop down list, doesn't matter which):

What I really love about GP4 was racing at the ace level where the AI level was closely calibrated to what you could do. Overtaking was always possible and running a three-stopper at Ace level in Hungary, doing 77 perfect laps and just finishing ahead of Schumacher is among the most satisfying things one can do. It has its flaws (spinning off at Suzuka due to loss of downforce in the rear every lap after 13 so you have to drop 0.5 secs a lap just to get around track is one) but above all it's the game. We'll never see something like this again until a truly committed firm get the rights from Codemasters.

Imagine a Grand Prix 5 with no refuelling, Pirelli tyres, DRS and KERS and an unbelieveably close field. Wow!

I loved GP1 and GP2- both allowed easily customisable settings with some unofficial patches. I tried GP3 and GP4- but could never set the steering wheel up on the latter- with the NASCAR game it took a minute- I remember spending hours on it with GP4 and it never worked properly- and it never retained the settings- at that point I gave up on it and never touched it again. I always though that both those ganmes were very buggy in comparison to 1 and 2

alas I don't think I have my copy of GP2 anymore- and I doubt it would work on Windows vista anyway

I loved GP1 and GP2- both allowed easily customisable settings with some unofficial patches. I tried GP3 and GP4- but could never set the steering wheel up on the latter- with the NASCAR game it took a minute- I remember spending hours on it with GP4 and it never worked properly- and it never retained the settings- at that point I gave up on it and never touched it again. I always though that both those ganmes were very buggy in comparison to 1 and 2

alas I don't think I have my copy of GP2 anymore- and I doubt it would work on Windows vista anyway

Oh, but I've good news for you. You can download GP2 for free (just google it) and then, for Windows, you can dowload dosbox. This is an utilty with which you can play old dosgames, and it works perfectly.

Regarding Grand Prix 4, when I tried to play it with Windows it never worked. It kept crashing. The strange this is: I am now an Mac user... and with a program like CrossOver you can play almost any Windows Game. Even Grand Prix 4... and the funny thing is, with this emulator it works better than ever before! Superhigh framerate, beautifull graphics... I even prefer it to F1 2012 on the xbox...

I like the Codies games purely for the driving aspect, but with the racing aspect, the AI and aspects such as timing screens, etc. GP4 runs absolute rings around the Codies efforts. Not bad considering GP4 is TEN YEARS OLDER than the Codies games.

GP4 was the "arcade" version of Crammond's GP series. The handling was far easier and unrealistic compared to the first 3. The most realistic handling remained GP3 (2000).

Mark Webber back in his first year at Minardi would take online questions through a Telstra website. Someone asked him which games were the most realisitic to F1 and Webber said GP4 and that 'the rest are mostly rubbish.' I wish they kept that transcript but it was a long time ago. Its entirely possible the cars were in fact easier to drive. When Martin Brundle first stepped into an Ferrari 2000 a while back (it was sometime in the early 00s, for F1racing Mag) and compared it to the same Benetton he drove in 1992, he said today's drivers were paid way too much as the 2000 car was absolutely bolted to the track.

Graphic are great, all the car liveries and TV graphic overlay, hunt and walker commentating, it's insane! It's even repositioned the in car cameras to match the mounting positions they used to use. can recommend it more highly.

It runs like silk on my machine, nothing special, a core i3, 60fps no slow down of pop-ups.

I have played many F1 games, Rfactor, the official F1 games etc, but nothing come close to this. the AI and handling is really great.

I still play GP3, I have season-data from 1950-2012, and decided to start with the first FIA F1 World Champ, 1981, and plan to play out the next 30 years or so, and trying to think about safety during those years, looking at crashes and well, basically ending up with creating my own history line from 1981 until 2011.